Stowers Institute for Medical Research

Jul 22 2016 KANSAS CITY, MO—Scientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have reported a detailed description of how function-impairing mutations in polr1c and polr1d genes cause Treacher Collins syndrome (TCS), a rare congenital craniofacial development disorder that affects an estimated 1 in 50,000 live births. Collectively the results of the study, published in

Mar 17 2016 KANSAS CITY, MO—As eggs and sperm, or gametes, are formed during meiosis, chromosomes carrying the genetic material from each parent must find their partners, pair, and exchange parts of their DNA. This recombination is an important driving force behind genetic variability and evolution, but most importantly, it ensures that chromosomes move properly

Feb 25 2016 KANSAS CITY, MO—Researchers from the laboratory of Paul Trainor, Ph.D., at the Stowers Institute of Medical Research have developed an effective and reliable technique for studying high-arched palate using a mouse model. The methodology could expand research into the genetic aspects of this craniofacial abnormality. Palate development in mice: normal (top) and

Oct. 29, 2015-KANSAS CITY, MO—Researchers in the Workman Lab at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have identified a link between cellular metabolism and gene expression, one with potentially far-reaching implications for cancer risk prediction and treatment. The interaction of SESAME with Set1 complex controls the crosstalk between H3K4me3 and H3pT11 by sensing glycolysis, and

Oct 14 2015 KANSAS CITY, MO—Neuroblastoma is a solid tumor cancer that arises in the nervous system outside the brain and spinal cord and is often fatal in children. The tumors are derived from embryonic neural crest cells that fail to properly migrate or mature. It is known that a variety of molecular signals guide

Sep 16 2015 KANSAS CITY, MO—Cellular mitosis depends in part on small organelles that extend spindles to pull apart chromosome pairs. Before they can perform this and other essential tasks, these tiny cylindrical structures — known as centrioles in animals and spindle pole bodies (SPBs) in yeast — must themselves duplicate. However, much about this

Harvard Gazette, by Hadley Bridger, Brigham & Women's Hospital ~ August 3, 2015 Skeletal muscle is one of the most abundant tissue types in the human body, but it has proven difficult to produce in large quantities in the lab. Unlike other cell types, such as heart cells, neurons, and cells found in the gut,

Jul 16 2015 KANSAS CITY, MO—The older we get, the less likely we are to hear well, as our inner ear sensory hair cells succumb to age or injury. Intriguingly, humans are one-upped by fish here. Similar hair cells in a fish sensory system that dots their bodies and forms the lateral line, by which

May 27 2015 KANSAS CITY, MO—If DNA is the cookbook of life, then RNA is the scratch paper where the cell writes down its favorite recipes. These recipes could make the pigments of your skin, the vehicles that carry oxygen through your veins, or the signaling molecules that keep cancer in check. Sometimes, when the

Mar 13 2015 KANSAS CITY, MO—All the cells in an organism carry the same instruction manual, the DNA, but different cells read and express different portions of it in order fulfill specific functions in the body. For example, nerve cells express genes that help them send messages to other nerve cells, whereas immune cells express